How we know what we know about Syria

Obama administration support for Syrian rebels is based on a United Nations authorized report from November 2011. In that document, Syria is accused of committing “crimes against humanity.” The report’s co-author is a board member at a Washington, DC-based think tank that just happens to have the former chairman of ExxonMobil, a consultant for the Saudi Binladin Group, and a former CIA executive on its board of directors.

Much of the U.S. and European press on the so-called civil war originates from a tiny organization in the United Kingdom called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (the Observatory). The one man operation is run by a longtime opponent of Syrian Bashar Hafez al-Assad.

For the most part, this is how we know what we know about Syria.

The “human rights” rationale

The United Nations Human Rights Council authorized an independent committee to study human rights in Syria in 2011. The committee didn’t visit Syria, claiming that the three members lacked access. Instead members set up a safe house in Switzerland, brought in individuals who claimed to have fled Syria, and took anonymous testimony on human rights concerns. This was the basis of the November 23, 2011 report to the UN HRC criticizing the Assad regime.

The council strongly supports regime change in Syria as evidenced by the selection of the spokesperson from the rebel Syrian National Council as a presenter for its July 23 Capitol Hill briefing for Congress.

The UN HRC failed to report on foreign fighters in Syria, foreign funding of the rebels, and human rights violations by the rebels over the past year, including terrorist suicide bombings. The report is selective, biased, and one sided. It is also the basis for sanctions, plus NATO and Gulf oil oligarch aid that turned an armed conflict into a civil war.

News from the front, Coventry, UK

The Syrian Human Rights Observatory is a one man operation located in Coventry, United Kingdom. Rami Abdul Rahman dispatches reports to the Western media from his apartment. He claims to have 200 sources on the ground in Syria. The sources don’t know other sources and their names are a secret that only Abdul Rahman knows. He has not been there since his self-exile in 2001. He claims to be self-funded. He was part of the resistance to Assad and supports the Free Syria Army. Rahman is hardly objective, yet his operation serves as the preeminent source for much of the Western media reporting on Syria.

Here are some recent examples of the Observatory in action. Their allegations are often cited in the first or second paragraphs of stories on the conflict,

MSNBC uses the Observatory for day to day reports on battles and outcomes: “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, reported helicopter attacks on the central Salaheddine district of Aleppo and fighting elsewhere in the city.” MSNBC, July 28

Bloomberg cited the Observatory for summary statistics on total deaths in the conflict on both sides: “International and regional efforts have failed to end the violence in Syria, which began in March 2011 and has left at least 19,000 people dead, including about 5,000 government troops, according to the Observatory.” Bloomberg, July 27

Even Aljazeera uses the Observatory as a primary source: “Civilians crowded into basements seeking refuge from the bombing, with the SOHR’s Rami Abdel Rahman describing the clashes as the uprising’s fiercest“. Aljazeera, July 29

The Western media apparently ignores itself. Reuters, which uses Observatory reports, did a profile of the organization and concluded that “it is virtually impossible to verify any data trickling out of the country.” The media also ignored a major investigative article in Alakhbar, January 26. It provides more than enough reasons to question the death toll estimates, action reports, and the stability of the Observatory.

If regime change is such a great idea, why twist the truth and torture logic?

The ruling elite want to keep its Saudi oil connection pumping and the contracts from the Gulf States alive. It is about oil and money. But it’s about much more than that.

The Money Party (aka ruling elite) has one set of tactics for achieving their goals—intimidation, subversion, war, and destruction. These are very blunt instruments. Why not? Who will stop them? Assad is pro-Iranian, he’s in power, and he won’t leave. So, what to do? Take control of the storyline, create a rationale for the anti-Syrian campaign, and get your minions in the two parties and the corporate media to execute the strategy.

While the country and much of the world languishes in a real depression, the leaders waste time on projects like this. As we face the imminent decline in the ability of the environment to support the human population, there’s no real effort to address that issue. The leaders are just too busy with Syria.

This time, they may not get their way. As Steve Hynd noted on July 20 and the Guardian’s Luke Harding reported, we’re looking at a conflict that could take years.

What will The Money Party do if it doesn’t get its way right away? Does the term false flag ring a bell?

February 1, 2007: “If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq (Syria), the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the U.S. blamed on Iran; culminating in a defensive U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan . . .” (Zbigniew Brzezinski, Senate Foreign Relations Committee countering George W Bush’s push for an attack on Iran—See Quds Force II—the Storyline Repeats Itself)

Michael Collins is a writer in the DC area who researches and comments on the corruptions of the new millennium. His articles focus on the financial manipulations of The Money Party, the abuse of power by government, and features on elections and election fraud. His articles can be found here. His website is called The Money Party